2022 SPECIALTY CROP AUTOMATION REPORT
WHILE INITIAL INVESTMENTS WERE FOCUSED ON VERTICAL FARMS, INVESTMENTS SINCE 2020 HAVE BEEN SPLIT MORE EQUALLY BETWEEN VERTICAL FARMS AND GREENHOUSE START-UPS
Funds raised by CEA start-ups 1 , 2015-2022 [USD million;%]
Share of total funds raised by CEA start-ups 1 , 2015-2022 [USD million; %]
$ M
49
89
338
182
601 752 1,867 1,686
5,563
Greenhouse start-up
51%
42%
41%
%
Vertical farm start-up
49%
58%
59%
26%
46%
1%
74%
54%
48% 52%
99%
32% 36% 68% 64%
2015
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Total funds raised
Source: Crunchbase, Roland Berger Figure 3: Funds raised by CEA start-ups 1) Non-exhaustive list, only major CEA farms currently active in the North America (US and Canada) and have raised a cumulative of at least 50 million
Today, the overall CEA market is still small. Looking ahead, a combination of growth drivers and difficult- to-overcome challenges render scalability of the CEA market uncertain (See Figure 4). The key drivers are supply security, consumer preference for flavorful,
high-quality fresh produce, unpredictable growing conditions and labor availability. Key challenges include nascent industry and technology, unproven business models, competition from traditional players and limitation of product variety. Both are further detailed below.
11 Vertical farms expand as demand for year-round produce grows | The New York Times, April 2022
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